Hearts of Time saga Challenge - Argument
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: My third installment of the challenge. After being told a pack of lies by River, the Doctor kicks Angel out of the TARDIS, setting off a chain of events that make him want to take his own life.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Angel. My thanks to LizzeXX for the idea, the saga, the writing, the Professor and Evy. Heres to the other Time Ladies. **

**Hearts of Time Saga challenge - Argument. **

Tears trickled down her face as she watched the TARDIS fade away. Taking the Doctor and River Song with it, Angel almost hoped the console sparked and exploded whenever they touched the controls. Almost? No, she hoped it drove them both mad, after that crack about her mother being ashamed of her she found she didn't care if the Doctor lived or died anymore even if it killed her because of the mating bond, though the way she felt at the moment she no longer cared if she herself lived or died. No, she thought. Her baby, she was going to live for her baby, let the Doctor be damned. What good had he done since he'd regenerated. She was through with him, especially after all that about her killing an entire race with her power over the vortex, as if she didn't have enough insecurities, and that cruel crack about her mother...Oh, she wasn't going to forgive him about that. No chance. Let him and River tear through the universe, she didn't care anymore. At least they'd left her behind in Cardiff where she could get help from Jack. As she trekked towards Torchwood, Angel closed her eyes as she ran a hand over her still pregnant belly. She'd promised to give him up for her child's sake, and it looked like the choice had been taken out of her hands.

* * *

The TARDIS was furious with him and River.

It had been a fortnight since they'd left Angel in Cardiff and it had been a terrible time since the TARDIS wouldn't land anywhere else, and seemed determined to smash them into walls, and the Doctor was starting to regret it. No, he wasn't. Not since River had let slip the fact that_ Angel _had used the vortex in River's own future to wipe out an innocent race. The Doctor hadn't wanted to believe it, he knew without a doubt River didn't let slip anything about the future nor did she like Angel, but after seeing the way Angel was practicing her powers he was forced to believe it. Part of him didn't want to believe it, Angel was...well, Angel. She was so kind, sweet, innocent, and generally adorable. Wait where had that come from?

He hadn't meant for things to get so out of hand, when Angel had asked him what he was doing when he'd started setting the controls for Earth to drop her off, the sound of her voice...It had angered him, though a part of his mind told him this wasn't right. He told her straightforwardly what River had told him. Angel had been shocked, but she'd tried to say she could control the vortex. He'd countered that by saying she couldn't know for sure. After continuous denials, the Doctor had lost control of his mouth.

" You told me your mother called you her angel," he said without checking his words. " Imagine how horrified she'd be if you killed an entire race!"

Angel had backed away, horrified by what he'd said, and there was a deep pain in her eyes, and she'd touched her stomach as if in pain. What had that been about? He regretted what he'd said to her, but nothing more than that.

After landing Angel took her things from a smirking and smug River, and ripped off the necklace around her neck, and threw it at the grim Doctor who'd caught it by reflex. It was a whitepoint star necklace, but how had Angel gotten it? Then she'd left.

The Doctor had been brooding about Angel's departure since she'd gone, and River had taken to trying to get him to go to bed with her, but something about it didn't sit well with him. He liked her, enjoyed her company, loved her adventurous spirit, but he wasn't attracted to her. That nagging feeling in his mind was growing more painful by the day.

* * *

River didn't even bother to hide her frustrations; trapped inside a TARDIS which seemed more intent on bucking her around instead of landing somewhere, with a man she wanted to get her leg over but he wasn't interested. The only thing that had gone right was kicking Angel out of the TARDIS. The one thing standing between her and the Doctor, and she'd pushed her away. River smirked as she thought how easy it had been to sway the Doctor, just meet him a couple of times without any idea who she was, and she was trusted implicitly whilst the only other Time Lady in the universe, his Mate, was pushed to the side instantly. It almost made her laugh just how stupid the Doctor could be. Trusting idiot.

But now she was regretting it as the Doctor didn't want to do anything with her, and besides the TARDIS loathed her.

Finally she decided to do what every wild card person did when things didn't go her way; she got drunk.

* * *

The Doctor let out a breath he was holding as the TARDIS settled down a bit. Finally after what had seemed like months the TARDIS had finally calmed down, somewhat. She was still sulky and bad tempered with him and River, but at least she wasn't flying through the vortex with the inertial dampeners half off, and the gravity field adjusting every so often it tried to send him hurtling to a wall.

Finally finished in the console room, he left to find River. He'd decided to try and take things to the next level. Sure he wouldn't be able to get her pregnant, but still at least he'd worked for the pleasure.

When he got closer to the room he knew she was in, he ran towards the door when he heard the sound of breaking glass and a drunken cry.

" River?" he shouted, throwing the door open.

The room was in a mess. Bottles of alcohol from the Doctor's personal stock littered the ground in shard of glass, making the Time Lord wonder how she'd found out about it. He would later learn the TARDIS had showed River so then this event would happen.

River swung round drunkenly. " Oh, hello sweetie," she purred before throwing the bottle she was holding to the ground, and the Doctor winced as another remnant of Gallifrey in the form of an ale was destroyed.

" What're you doing?"

" What does it look like I'm doin'?" River replied burping. " God, that's strong. What're you doing, sweet-sweetie?" she stuttered out as she picked up another bottle. The Doctor quickly grabbed it away before it ended up smashed. " River," he gently took her arms. " What're you doing? What's going on?"

River's face twisted with anger. " What's going on? Can't you guess?" she slurred before she gently took his arms like he'd done hers. " I'm getting drunk."

" Yes, I can see that, but why?" the Doctor asked wondering what had made her crack like this.

" Why?" she spat, her face twisting angrily. " I'll tell you why. You don't pay any attention to me-"

" I do," he snapped back as frustration started to grow.

River shook her head. " No, not since that little...Time Lady slut left you've been spending time away from me-"

" I was trying to get the TARDIS back in shape," the Doctor argued but River wasn't listening to him. Instead she started shouting to herself without a care of the world.

" No, you were pining for her," she sneered and her voice became nasty. " Your precious Angel, your precious _Mate_!"

" What?" The Doctor gasped, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't have time to process it when River kept talking drunkenly under her breath.

" You and her Mated!" she spat in disdain. " Sure she's the last Time Lady, but she's not special. She's not brave, she's not smart. She's just a plain, pathetic nobody. Hell you even believed the lie I spun about her using the vortex to wipe out an entire race!" She laughed derisively. " You're so taken by me you'd believe me if the sky was purple."

The Doctor shut her up by grabbing her and shaking her. " What do you mean she's my Mate? What do you mean by lying about using the vortex to kill an entire race, what did you do that for?" Since his regeneration he'd pushed Angel away by saying she was his friend, but coming from River something was different. It was as if the word Mate from her mouth and the way she'd said it like a Time Lord who was proud of his Mate...His mind was churning.

River laughed. " Oh, yeah, that's right. You've forgotten, haven't you? Brilliant isn't it," she boasted taking a necklace from her neck. " A temporal telepathic field generator, designed to inhibit a certain mind. Your mind.

" I made you forget about her, your Mate," she sneered. " I was raised by the Silence, Doctor," she took a large gulp out of a bottle she'd just opened, the Doctor was paralysed in shock. " But I held you in my heart," she pressed both hands to her chest, batting her eyelashes his way whilst holding a bottle. " She was the only thing in the way, her and the baby-"

" What baby?" The Doctor shouted, this was getting into his head. He could see and hear memories of him and Angel...but they still felt blocked.

" Don't tell me you haven't noticed," River sneered, " you've been so preoccupied with Amy you haven't even noticed a change in Angel's appearance. Oh you haven't noticed," River smirked. " You care more about my mother than the only other member of your people. This really was too easy!"

" How long have you done this?" the Doctor ground out angrily.

The anger she heard in the Doctor's voice snapped River out of her drunken rage, but it was too late. She'd told him too much already.

She was unprepared for the Doctor ripping the device from her neck and applying the sonic screwdriver to it. " Hm, the power cells been running for over two years. Clever work, River." Pressing the screwdriver to the inhibitor, the Doctor destroyed it. River even in her drunken rage stepped back from his anger, but it was overshadowed when the Doctor held his head, groaning. Memories unblocked themselves, and in the middle of them he felt disgust and self loathing for the pain he'd heaped on Angel.

River stared at him, wondering what he was going to do next. He had no idea it was too late with Angel, the only person he could have a relationship was with her. Why couldn't he see it?

The Doctor looked up at her, and she backed away at the hatred she saw in his eyes.

" Get. Out. Of. My. TARDIS!" He shouted at her before grabbing her, and pulling her screaming to the console room. The TARDIS had already landed, this time in Stormcage. As she was being pushed out, River leveled him with a glare and some parting words. " Your mate is out there, Doctor. But you might not like what you find."

As he sent the TARDIS back to Cardiff, the Doctor couldn't help but replay River's words in his mind. They weren't those of a time traveller knowing the future. They were the words of fact.

* * *

Angel woke up, and looked up at Jack, Ianto, Gwen and Owen. She noticed at once she was lying on the examination table in Torchwood three, and she was cold.

" What happened?" she asked.

" I'm so sorry, Angel," Owen said regretfully.

" Sorry?" Angel was starting to panic. " Sorry about what- My baby, what's wrong? Is my baby alright?"

The baby was the only thing she had left to live for. Nothing could have happened to it-

" You've had a miscarriage." Owen told her, his face drawn as he backed away respectfully.

Angel screamed, and grabbed hold of her belly, now empty, and sobbed her hearts out. Jack watched his adopted sister sob, and he clenched his fists in rage. The Doctor should be here, he should be helping Angel. Instead he was off swanning around the universe with River Song, and even Jack Harkness knew River Song was a convicted murderess. How the Doctor could do this to the woman he was supposed to love and nurture above all else was beyond him. Jack remembered seeing the Doctor and Angel's last incarnations; the Doctor had doted on Angel, forever complimented her, and the ex Time Agent had loved every minute of it. If Jack had no idea who this woman was he would think the previous Angel and Doctor were strangers, in a way they were.

" My baby, my baby, my baby," Angel was sobbing, and Jack made a decision. If he ever saw the Doctor, he would have to seriously resist the urge to shoot the Time Lord.

* * *

**Based on an author's note of A Fallen Angel, where the Doctor does something to Angel and kicks her out. Please tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hearts of Time Saga Challenge - Argument. **

**Chapter Two. **

Jack turned to Angel, and his immortal heart clenched at the sight of her. Where there was once a bright, happy girl, so innocent, sweet and loving was a pale shadow of her former self that Jack remembered so fondly. The other members of the team were busy with their work, keeping a respectful distance from Angel, and it gave Jack the perfect chance to observe her behavior. Angel was quieter, more solemn, not that Jack could blame her, especially after what she'd gone through. He'd seen dozens of women miscarry a child and had seen them distraught, if that was the word to describe it. For Angel, the baby was a chance to create life. A chance to be a proper mother. Not anymore.

" What will you do now, Angie?" he asked quietly, wishing there was something he could do or say to make her feel better. Angel looked up at him dejectedly. " I don't know anymore Jack," she whispered, running a hand over her flat belly where her child was growing. " When I realised he'd forgotten me I made a decision, to leave the Doctor for the sake of our baby. Now the baby is dead I don't know what I can do."

The floodgates were opened. " I don't know if I can live anymore Jack, the Doctor and River have seen to that. Once I thought he would never say such a thing about my mother, now he has."

Jack felt his jaw clench and his fists close automatically. When he'd seen Angel cry herself to sleep three nights in a row, he'd wanted nothing more than to call the Doctor, and show the neglectful bastard what he'd done. Now he wanted to kill him. But it would kill Angel, and he couldn't do that, not to his sister. Angel had told him about what the Doctor had done because of River Song, how he'd smiled and laughed at the prospect of genocide because of the insane archaeologist, something he could never imagine the Doctor do. He remembered the last two Doctors face off against the Daleks, both of them had been distraught at the choice of genocide, he hated it. Jack had listened in disbelief; how the hell had this stranger, this woman, this interloper managed to make the Doctor,_ the Doctor_, enjoy the idea of genocide, even when it was children doing the killing. Yeah, Jack understood the implications of what the Silence had been doing, but he didn't have to enjoy the idea of humans from the late 60s, early 70s, killing a specific race of aliens on sight because of a telepathic command. It boggled the mind that the Doctor was responsible. How could he have decided genocide was the only solution? The man had destroyed his own race for god's sake. He also remembered how the last Doctor had almost broken down at the thought of being alone when the Master died, and Angel herself was dying. What he couldn't understand was why this new Doctor would be so callous to Angel. If he saw him he would find out.

" What'll you do?" Jack asked her.

Angel sighed. " I don't know. I don't want anything more to do with the Doctor. Maybe I'll just go off somewhere, grow a new TARDIS, and leave this part of the universe and go somewhere where I'll never meet him again."

Jack listened to her. He felt so sad for her, his anger towards the Doctor paled in comparison. " You'll need a power source to do that, will the rift do that?"

Angel chuckled as she saw through Jack's question. With the rift in a dimension funnel she'd be able to grow a new TARDIS faster, and it was certainly tempting to stay here with Jack. She felt safe and loved with him. He was immortal, knew she would need company when her so called Mate had abandoned her. " I meant it as a suggestion Jack, I don't know if I actually want to leave Earth. I was only looking at my options. I don't know what I'll do, but I do want to leave Cardiff. It should be safe enough."

" What about the Doctor?" That was the one thing Jack was unsure about.

Angel frowned, and her body tensed involuntarily at the name of her Mate. She wished she could break the Mating bond with him, wished she could do something, anything, to make him pay for what he'd said and did. She hated the negative thoughts she was having, but Angel didn't care. She was done with innocence, done with naivety, done with the Doctor.

" What about him?"

" Suppose he remembers and comes back for you?"

" That hope kept me going the past couple of years running Jack," Angel replied darkly. " Look where its gotten me; my Mate cares more about a woman who's a psychopath, and my baby is dead. He's broken my hearts already, I'm not letting him destroy anything else."

A day later Angel left Torchwood after being hugged warmly on her way after promising both Jack and Gwen to stay in touch with them. As she left the city on a train she wondered what her options were. Jack had had a point about the rift to use as a power source to grow a new TARDIS, but Angel wanted to see what she could do before she made that decision. Her past self was presently prisoner in Van Statten's bunker, and tempting as it was for Angel to change history she couldn't. She was still a Time Lady, and meant she was bound to the laws of time. Besides she wasn't the Doctor, she wasn't going to take the law into her own hands.

Angel sighed as she fingered the dampening bracelet, with Jack's help she'd modified it so then the Doctor wouldn't track her down if he came to his senses. She didn't care what he thought anymore. Right now she was going to explore the rest of the world.

* * *

The Doctor felt his lip split as Jack's fist impacted on his face as soon as he left the TARDIS in Torchwood three looking for Angel. He hadn't even made it outside the TARDIS door before he was grabbed, his time senses going off the way they had told him it was Jack who'd grabbed him. But before he could even protest, fight back, Jack had punched him. He had noticed the other members of the team standing there grimly. Not one of them came to his aid, spoke up for him against Jack. He supposed he'd had that coming; Angel had a way with people, she made them love her.

He, he just made them into weapons, pawns to use and then discard thanklessly. " Get up, you spineless, uncaring bastard!" Jack spat at him, his fists raised for another punch. " Fight me like a man instead of a man who doesn't care about the woman he supposedly doesn't love anymore."

The Doctor's hearts clenched when he heard that. " I do love her, Jack-" he tried to say, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he instantly regretted it. The only answer he got in return was Jack's fist punching him in the jaw. The Doctor cried in pain before Jack had decided he'd had enough. Grabbing the Doctor by his green jacket, the ex Time agent pulled the Time Lord to the small mortuary in the base. Jack threw the Doctor against the wall where only the gift of the Time Lord respiratory bypass system prevented all the air in his lungs from escaping, but the Doctor didn't expect Jack to pull open one of the doors. " Angel knew you'd come back, so she told us to save the remains, so you could see what you've done," Jack said as he stepped back.

" No," he gasped in shock and horror, unable to take his eyes off the frozen bundle of blood, the physical pain Jack had heaped on his body seemed so...redundant now. His hearts had found something else to be guilty for. " No!" the Doctor started sobbing his hearts out. Hatred boiled and churned inside him. He was going to kill River! Best of all, he was going to wipe out that bunch of telepathic freaks, and that bitch Kovarian! The vengeful part of the Doctor's mind wanted nothing more than to make it clear to the universe that just because there were two Time Lords left in the universe, they did not have the right to decide if they deserved to live or not. The part of the Doctor that loved Angel wanted nothing more than to grab a jug of water, and chuck it all over himself to be sure this was all a hideous dream. He knew it wasn't a dream. How could he have done this? The Doctor remembered, unbidden, a memory of his mother. How she'd stood behind Rassilon, when the evil legendary Time Lord had remorselessly used the Master to bring them out of the Timelock. His mother had looked at Angel, and had automatically accepted her. What would she say about this, about what he'd done? She would never have forgiven him.

Jack swallowed in sadness when he saw it before turning back to the Doctor, and his anger came surging back. " This was supposed to be the third Time Lord, or would've been if you'd given Angel a chance. Instead you hurt her, all because of the lies of some..._bitch, _that you swallowed." He looked at the other man, though that description was a far cry from what he believed the Doctor to be at the moment.

" How could you believe those lies, Doctor?" Jack asked.

The Doctor couldn't reply, all he could see was the bundle that could have been his son or daughter. He didn't dare take his sonic screwdriver to learn the gender, he didn't want to know. Another image came into his mind, the sight of Angel sobbing her eyes out as he laid into her, his mouth spewing all that poison about her mother being ashamed of her.

" Where is she Jack?" he asked; he didn't expect Jack to tell her but he had to make the effort to find her. Jack snorted. " Even if I did know, do you think I'd tell you? Face it, you abandoned her, you broke her hearts, you killed your child."

Okay, he knew it wasn't necessarily true, but the Doctor's neglect of Angel hadn't really helped. It worked wonders, though. He had to give himself marks for that.

The Doctor collapsed to the ground, and he started crying his eyes out. Jack silently closed the trolley back and closed the door. He looked down at the crying Time Lord, but he didn't say a word to him until he was walking away, his voice echoing down the corridor.

" You've done it this time, Doctor," he said as he walked away. " You've broken the hearts of the only woman in the universe to love you properly. I'm not going to help you, and neither are the others. Sarah Jane, Mickey, Martha, Donna, all of them know what you've done, and Angel didn't even bother telling them not to try and kill you. You're alone, forever. A far cry from the man who came out of the Time war, and met the most fantastic Time Lady ever. Ask yourself this, did River Song help you during that time, or did she just fill your head with false assurances?"

Then he was gone.

* * *

The Doctor didn't notice as Jack left, but he did register what the immortal had said. How could he not? Jack was very right. He just sobbed his hearts out, his head ringing with the parting words Jack had used. He was right, what good had River bloody Song done for him? All she'd done was drag him off, deeper into the darkness to Angel's light, made him enjoy genocide. Something he hated more than anything; he was responsible for so many deaths, including his own race it was enough to kill him, but to enjoy it...It was unthinkable, and yet River had somehow twisted him, made him like her. He remembered what Angel had said to him afterwards, and it had made him physically sick. Angel had been there for him, Angel had forgiven him. The last Time Lady...And how had he repaid her? He'd Mated with her, treated her like a queen, then he'd regenerated and forgotten about her all because some shallow, manipulative bitch who'd decided to get her nasty little claws into her, told him lies about Angel when he should've known better. And because of that their child was now dead, miscarried.

He hated Fate. He hated the Silence for turning Rory and Amy's daughter into a psychopath, hated River Song for destroying what he had in his life. Angel had been the only thing in his life worth living after the war, and look what he'd done to that. All he'd needed was to forget her, then thoughtlessly hurt her time and again, before River had told him lies. Part of the Doctor wanted nothing more than to return to Stormcage, and beat the daylights out of River. It startled him to think about how tempting that really was, in fact he was so keen he was willing to take Jack with him. He wasn't a violent man by nature, in fact he hated violence. But River...She'd crossed a line one must never cross with a Time Lord, but it was the stupid universe who'd forgotten what it was for an angry Time Lord whose Mate had been harmed. But the stupid woman...hadn't she thought for one moment what could happen if she had been responsible for Angel's death, or was she really that psychotic?

The Doctor shook his head, shaking the angry thoughts from his mind. Violence wasn't going to bring Angel back to him, wasn't going to rewrite time so then they would never have met River, never have gone through these years of hell, of separation.

Now their child was dead.

He stared brokenly at the door. " Who would you have taken after? Your mother, the most thoughtful, sweet woman in the universe? Or the shallow, evil man that's your father?" he choked out. The Doctor had always been told he was a good man balanced out by good and evil, and in the past he'd always prided himself on it. Now he was convinced he was no better than Davros, or the likes of the Daleks, the Master, or even Rassilon. But even their exploits and misdeeds were nothing compared to what he'd just done to Angel, to their child. Look at it now. Not only had he believed River's lies, but he'd hurt Angel in the worst way possible; by making her alone, by being responsible for their child's death. The Doctor was so sure the heartbreak he'd caused was responsible for the death of their child. It was the only thing that made sense to him right then, the only thing he could see. Little things like an accident meant nothing to the Time Lord, and he wasn't going to bother correcting himself.

He opened the bond, and shouted out knowing she would hear it despite her attempts to block it. _" Angel, I'm so sorry!" _

* * *

Halfway across the world, Angel choked as she reacted to the telepathic cry. She knew what it was, she didn't have to question what it was. The emotional pain coming from the Doctor had been mounting up like a volcano; feelings bubbling like lava, anger, sadness, guilt...all of them bubbling and seething ready to erupt. She'd been feeling them for a while, she had begun cursing the Mating bond. The emotions she'd felt since the baby had died had been guilt before a hot flash of anger, and pain had come through. Then she'd felt something she hadn't expected; the Doctor calling her name through the mating bond, and the feeling of vindication as he'd kicked River Song out of the TARDIS, but Angel had been beyond caring as she'd been busy grieving at the loss of her child. Jack and the rest of the marvelous Torchwood three team had kept the baby in a freezer, she hadn't been able to see it without bursting into a fresh round of tears. She'd known the reason why the humans had kept the baby, and it wasn't the Torchwood reason of if its alien, its ours. They wanted the Doctor to suffer, and she had decided he needed a taste of his own bitter medicine. The Doctor had visited Cardiff, he'd seen the baby's dead body, and the fresh emotions, the realisation of what he'd done made Angel happy he finally knew what it felt like to be in pain. Like Idris, the human TARDIS, had said about the Doctor not caring, and a host of other things like actions have consequences. The Doctor would have to live with the fact their child was dead.

Angel grimaced as she thought about her future. It wasn't a bright one; what did she have on this planet? Nothing. Sure she had a few temporal rifts, and she could easily grow and adapt a TARDIS here, but what then? Travelling with the Doctor had been fun, even the worst bits because she'd been happy there was another Time Lord, someone to keep her safe. Her thoughts went to her best friend, the Corsair. If he'd Mated with her, what would her life have been like if he hadn't landed on House where he was hacked to pieces, and his TARDIS was reduced to a wreck?

The Corsair would've killed the Doctor for hurting her; he'd helped her, pulled her through the Academy, and he always looked after her like a big brother and a little sister though their ages were comparable.

Jack had asked her why she didn't want to build a TARDIS straightaway, and Angel had told him she wanted to know her options. Besides she also had to remind him the Doctor used the Cardiff Rift for refueling and the less she had to do with him the better. He'd dropped her off there anyway, he knew Jack would look after her. Once she'd pointed that out, Jack had understood; the moment the Doctor had remembered, he'd kicked River out, and he'd headed straight for Cardiff. Angel had just wanted to leave the city to never see him again as long as she lived.

She cursed the Doctor's last self for making her mate with him; if he hadn't then she wouldn't be in this mess, and it would be simple to forget him, but she couldn't. The Doctor and her were mated for life, and if anything happened to either of them that precluded regeneration, then they would both die. Angel knew how protective the Doctor had been in the past, and now he remembered the mating he wouldn't do anything stupid. She didn't care anymore; she was so tempted to find someone with a knife or a gun, and let them get on with it. That baby was the only thing she had left since the father had abandoned her. She knew River was responsible, but she wasn't going to do anything about it.

Maybe she was better off without him.

Angel closed her eyes, adjusting the dampening bracelet she was wearing to send the message. _It's too late, Doctor. Go, shack up with River. She's possibly the only woman you're going to be happy with. Make sure you wear a dampening bracelet yourself, I don't want to hear you anymore. You are not my Mate anymore. Please, don't look for me, and don't do anything stupid. _

She waited, sensing the message had been received - she sounded like a receptionist, or something. She could feel the Doctor's pain clearly, but she couldn't even muster the effort to feel sympathetic. She was fed up with feeling sorry for others, what good had it done her?

_I've kicked River out,_ the Doctor's reply said. _Please, I'm sorry Angel-_

Angel was furious. Is that really what he thought would get her back with him? Was he really that shallow in his thinking she would jump when he said sorry? _DON'T. YOU. DARE! How dare you think I'd go back to you just because you know how to say sorry! Who do you think you are?! You call yourself my mate, but my mate was the Tenth Doctor. Not you. You are useless. I wonder why the Silence are going after you, the eleventh Doctor, a man who delights in genocide with a woman who relishes death. _

The Doctor mentally winced, but Angel didn't care. She made sure to send that through their tenuous link. _Tell me why I should trust you? _Angel's mental voice was quiet.

_Because I love you. I've always loved you, ever since the moment we met. _

_Not good enough. _

The Doctor's mental voice became urgent. _Angel, please. I'm trying to tell you I'm sorry. I was furious when I found out what River had done, the lies, the temporal telepathic inhibitor she'd made to make me forget. When I deactivated it, I remembered everything...the joy I had in mating with you was one of my most happiest memories, the fact it was with you and it was after the Time war, and I'd just regenerated into someone more willing rather than shy to do it because I was afraid, Angel, only made the mating more magical. When my ninth self rescued you from Van Statten, it was magical finding another Time Lord, and not just a Time Lord, but a Time Lady. But I was shy. I was starting to love you, I dreamt of loving you so much. _

_But I was terrified you might not feel the same way; my ninth self was a soldier born out of a war, a soldier without commands, but when it came to you it was like all the guilt, all the pain melted away. _

Angel was silent. She'd often wondered in the past if the Tenth Doctor had mated to her out of regeneration instability, but she had never considered this. The Doctor carried on. _Angel, I admit it, I was fascinated by...her,_ he couldn't say River's name, besides Angel knew who he was talking about. _But that's changed. Look at what she is, Amy and Rory's daughter's a twisted psychopath, and I hate her for what she's done. _

_I felt your anger through the bond, _Angel admitted; she also admitted to herself going back to him was compelling, but did she really want to be hurt anymore? No, she didn't.

* * *

**What will Angel decide to do? Feedback, please people. **


End file.
